Does anyone know what is in Kirkwall?

[scrutineer]

Bleak & dreary town?

 

 

 

 

 

nice one riff :p i can confirm thats kirkwall in the photo .....not sure where baggal went as you can clearly see buildings that are not "all brownish gray" ;)

 

and of course there are other means of transport than the T11 bus and ships tours - there are lots of other tours available but when your ship is going to a small community dont leave it to the last minute to try to book

all of our taxi tours were full weeks ago for the next very busy day (august 10th) but we are still getting calls and emails 9 days before the day

 

Finally an attempt at helpful advice - as i said we are fully booked BUT because we cannot say 100% that all the morning tours will be finished on time ready for an afternoon tour we have to take less bookings for the afternoon to allow for a late running car or two ...... therefore in places like orkney it may be worth walking round the town for the morning then looking at the taxi rank or office or tourist info mid afternoon to see if a short tour is available. But please also remember that some transport has to be kept back for local hires only and please dont abuse the driver who cannot take you out for three hours ....... we cannot send every car out on tours and leave the locals to walk to tesco can we?:p

[insanemagnet]

A quick update on the T11 bus.

 

Having read posts about tickets being sold out and issues with queuing, having just returned from Kirkwall I experienced no such issues, despite the fact that there were three cruise ships in port that day.

 

The tourist information and Stagecoach had planned ahead and put on three buses for the day, and I didn't hear of anyone who wanted to travel, who couldn't. The tourist information had a pop up shelter outside the main office, and around 10.40 started selling tickets, and lining people up in a queue for each bus.

 

The timetable gives plenty of time at each stop to see what you need to see without rushing.

 

You can also use the same ticket on the X1 to travel down to the Italian Chapel after the T11 tour. Just tell the driver that you are going there and they will stop at the end of the path to the Chapel (about a five minute walk away). The same bus comes back the opposite way about 40 minutes later to take you back to Kirkwall.

[LondonTowner]

We have just returned from a cruise with a stop in Kirkwall. Before departure I rang the local tourist office where the lady was very helpful. She sent a message to all the local tour operators to ask who had availability for our day in port.

 

We booked with Visit Orkney and had an excellent day with Clive Horton. The weather was definately against us. Although it was July it was very wet, windy and cold, but we had taken the appropriate clothing. In spite of the weather we enjoyed our trip as Clive was extremely knowledgable. However, we probably wouldn't rush to go back to the Orkneys.

[togacath]

Hi All,

 

Do the ships dock (or tender) right in town or do you need to take a shuttle bus just to walk around Kirkwall?

 

Thanks in advance!

[LondonTowner]

We didn't tender and there was a shuttle bus into the town.

[ann141]

We are visiting Kirkwall in 2 weeks time and wondered how long the shuttle bus took to arrive at the centre and how frequent the shuttles are? We are hoping to do the T11 tour on the bus but need to factor in time for the shuttle:)

[insanemagnet]

5 to 10 minutes.

No idea, and no schedule was published in Horizon, other than the time of the last bus. We were first off the ship and one was waiting and instantly filled and left. On return, one was waiting and we sat on it for 10 minutes before we left.

[ann141]

Thanks for the info. Useful to know:)